In the first few weeks of the new legislative sessions, lawmakers in at least 8 states have proposed bills to impose drug tests on applicants to family safety net programs. Last year I reported that Republican state legislators went on…

Georgia followed Florida’s example in forcing safety-net recipients to get drug tests, despite the fact that neither law is likely to stand up in court. Why? Because actual policymaking was never the point.

Newt Gingrich has for decades been the GOP standard bearer in using racial caricatures to demonize poor people. Food stamps were spared for a time, leaving them the last functioning part of the economic safety net. No longer.